Dear Fellow Educators,

It’s a gut-wrenching day to be an educator–one of the hardest. The unspeakable horror that unfolded at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, is on all of our minds and in all of our hearts.

I want to acknowledge that you may be dealing with a wide range of emotions. We all want to think of school as a safe place for our students, our families, and ourselves. You may be feeling despair, rage, grief, numbness, or guilt. Perhaps the worst feeling–one that my colleagues and I here at Newsela have felt at moments–is the desire to help, but not knowing what’s going to make a difference.

But you will make a difference. What you do in these coming days will make your students feel safer and help them make sense of a world that sometimes can seem senseless. You will help build their emotional strength and sense of compassion, because the stakes are too high not to.

We’re working hard to get you free resources to help you do just that. Some are on our home page already, and you’ll see more in the coming hours and days. This tragedy is hitting us very differently than past ones, so we think you’ll want something different from us.

It can feel lonely when you’re trying to figure out what to do in the wake of the unspeakable. But you are not alone. You are among the three million educators and administrators in this country teaching almost 50 million kids. Together, you have power. Only you know what’s best to help your school be the place you want it to be, to protect your students and help them become the type of adults the world needs them to be. When you’ve decided what to do, we are here to help.

Sincerely,

Matthew Gross